Antithrombotic therapy for stroke prevention in patients with ischemic stroke with aspirin treatment failure

Jay B. Lusk, Haolin Xu, Eric D. Peterson, Deepak L. Bhatt, Gregg C. Fonarow, Eric E. Smith, Roland Matsouaka, Lee H. Schwamm, Ying Xian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Many older patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke were already taking aspirin before admission. However, the management strategy for patients with aspirin treatment failure has not been fully established. METHODS: We used data from the American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines Stroke Registry to describe discharge antithrombotic treatment patterns among Medicare beneficiaries with ischemic stroke who were taking aspirin before their stroke and were discharged alive from 1734 hospitals in the United States between October 2012 and December 2017. RESULTS: Of 261634 ischemic stroke survivors, 100016 (38.2%) were taking aspirin monotherapy before stroke. Among them, 44.4% of patients remained on aspirin monotherapy at discharge (20.9% 81 mg, 18.2% 325 mg, 5.3% other or unknown dose). The next most common therapy choice was dual antiplatelet therapy (24.6%), followed by clopidogrel monotherapy (17.8%). The remaining 13.2% of patients were discharged on either aspirin/dipyridamole, warfarin, or nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants with or without antiplatelet, or no antithrombotic therapy at all. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half of patients with ischemic stroke while on preventive therapy with aspirin are discharged on aspirin monotherapy without changing antithrombotic class, while the other half are discharged on clopidogrel monotherapy, dual antiplatelet therapy, or other less common agents. These findings emphasize the need for future research to identify best management strategies for this very common and complex clinical scenario.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)E777-E781
JournalStroke
Volume52
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2021

Keywords

  • Anticoagulants
  • Aspirin
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Clopidogrel
  • Warfarin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Advanced and Specialized Nursing

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